Over 1 million independent books borrowed through the KOLL

Over 1 million independent books borrowed through the KOLL

November 3, 2011: Amazon adds a new benefit for eligible Prime members who own physical Kindles. They can borrow up to a book a month from a select set of books…the library starts with about 5,000 titles.

December 8, 2011: Amazon introduces KDP Select, a program through which publishers using their Kindle Direct Publishing can add their books to the KOLL (Kindle Owners’ Lending Library). They will be compensated by dividing a pool each month, based on the number of “borrows” they have.

I do think, as it’s gone forward, the KOLL may have been good for my sluggish backlist. I’ll have to wait to see if it has apparently boosted sales of them as well, or if the money is going to come mostly from borrows.

I have no doubt that this is good for readers. One of the KDP Select elements is the ability to offer you books for free for five days out of the 90…I’ve done it, and I’m sure readers benefited from that.

Well, let me amend that…it’s good for eligible Prime members.

NOOK users couldn’t get those books for free or otherwise during their enrollment in KDP Select (although they could get the books using a Kindle or a Kindle app…there are people who have both).

I think it’s a brilliant strategy on Amazon’s part. Prime is, I think, where the money is. If content is what drives hardware purchases, this is huge for Amazon.

If this teaches people to buy independently published books, look out traditional publishers!

I always like to consider the risks…

There could be backlash against Amazon for the exclusive part of the contract

Publishers may resent the small amount of money per borrow if the quantity keeps increasing without the pool increasing

Publishers might put less than optimal product in the KOLL, leading to dissatisfaction on the part of borrowers

Readers may find that the books being made free under the program are good enough to read…so they buy fewer books

Amazon could raise the cost of Prime, since the demand may increase…and they may have to significantly raise the pool pay

Those are a few possibilities I see…but overall, I think this is an example of Amazon successfully innovating.

What do you think? Feel free to comment on this post to let me and my readers know.

*Note: you can see the books that are available for eligible Prime members to borrow from this list on your computer, but you must borrow them from you Kindle device by clicking a button that says “borrow” not “buy” to have the cost covered by your annual Prime fee.

6 Responses to “Over 1 million independent books borrowed through the KOLL”

Must be something wrong with me. The addition of being able to borrow 1 book a month doesn’t even tempt me. There is just way too much for free or .99 to 3.99 out there. By the time I get the several I already have read, the new stuff will go down in price. I am a Prime Member and love the streaming and also the free shipping. I do a lot of shopping for items that are either heavy or bulky online so that I don’t have to carry it in from my garage on the back of my lot and up 3 pretty high steps. UPS drops off the package on my front porch and if it’s heavy I can just scoot it in and unpack and put away a little at a time. I break down the boxes and take to recycle. Whenever I can get a better deal from Walmart and need $45 worth I will order from them with free shipping.

Now, I absolutely know there are great books that are less than $3. Many of the books I read are free. :) That’s one of the reasons I like the KOLL: I wouldn’t have read this book without it, and I did like it…

Two out of three of the books I have borrowed from KOLL so far have been dogs even though they had tons of great reviews and interesting “sample” sections that made me want to read more. So I’m kind of bummed that I wasted two “lendings,” but more than happy that I didn’t waste cash money;)